Thursday, October 06, 2016

This guy is a fucking idiot!

It’s Mike Lazzo, the executive vice president and creative director of Adult Swim.

He was accused recently of purposely not hiring women creators or showrunners because (are you ready?): “When you put women in the writers room, you get conflict, not comedy.”

What an asinine, idiotic, short-sided, WRONG thing to say. Seriously, how does this moron have this job?

It’s such a staggeringly ignorant statement that it almost doesn’t seem worthy of argument.

Let me just say this: Female writers are every bit as good and funny as male writers and in many cases better. Period. Unlike this buffoon, I’ve been in writing rooms with women writers. I've hired women writers. I've relied on women writers. My statement is a fact.

According to a Buzzfeed report, Adult Swim employs the lowest number of female writers of any network. 1 in 34 are women. And according to Buzzfeed based on information passed on by employees, it is Lazzo who is responsible.

On Monday he tried to clear it up. Here’s what he said: “Women don’t tend to like conflict, comedy often comes from conflict, so that’s probably why we (or others) have so few female projects.”

Okay, so compare that to his earlier statement where he said the problem was women give you conflict, not comedy. Now he’s saying the problem is women don’t give you conflict.

It's just mind boggling.

And he’s proud of his assertion and his policy. Even if it's just lip service, you think he would apologize and promise to hire more women. But no, not even that.

There’s been a big push to increase diversity in all ranks of television, which is far overdue. But when you see how few women writers are being hired – in general, not just on Adult Swim – make sure you include them in the diversity category.

And you can see why it’s so difficult for them – backward-thinking executives like Mike Lazzo are in positions of power.

Oh, and by the way, it’s also why television is not nearly as good as it could be.

Last night I watched part of an episode of Seinfeld when they had written their TV pilot. Elaine was pissed there was no character like her in the script. Jerry eventually admitted it was because he didn't understand women enough to write dialogue for them. He had no idea what they were supposed to say. Is this a real problem in a writers room? Are there a substantial number of male writers who can't write female characters?

It's not just Adult Swim either. Cartoon Network (or the executives thereof) is hugely sexist itself. A number of years ago they cancelled a wonderful AND well-rated show called Tower Prep because "too many girls liked it" and "girls don't buy action figures." I guess no one told that to my wife who has an entire curio devoted to Transformers.

How is this any different from how people say women aren't as good performers as men are in comedy? I mean, I guess the fact that SNL bred the likes of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Maya Rudolph, or WHOSE LINE gave us Kathy Greenwood, or WORLD'S DUMBEST... had Chelsea Peretti and Jaime Andrews somehow doesn't prove any of them wrong? Come to think of it, a lot of people complain these fine, comedic ladies did nothing for their respective appearances by contribute sex appeal and nothing else: that's still the biggest complaint I see from people about Cicely Strong and Kate McKinnon.

I get that you think sex is disgusting and you find women objectionable. That much is obvious from your many posts in the past in which you've said things like the sight of two people kissing is practically obscene. But to say Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph aren't funny is just plain stupid. I'm not familiar with Kathy Greenwood, Chelsea Peretti and Jaime Andrews, but it hardly matters as you basically say the view that women aren't as good as men at doing comedy has not been proved wrong.

I'm assuming you're here because you at least watched Cheers, though I don't know how you could have, given Sam's playboy lifestyle and the many sex jokes that were in the show, but if you did and you saw the performances and comedic timing of Shelley Long, Rhea Perlman and Kirstie Alley, I don't know how you can seriously say women can't be funny.

I've gt a Friday Question for Ken: Last night, I was watching the latest episode of "Designated Survivor," which has been pretty damn riveting. However, the first five minutes (or a similarly painfully long amount of time) were spent listing what seemed like 50 producers, co-producers, executive producers, co-executive producers, associate produers, consulting producers, etcetcetc. I'm sitting there thinking holy shit, the number of producers on this show must outnumber the number of extras.

@ScottyBI thought Ken has covered this before and I quickly Googled "Ken Levine Producer Credit Blogs" and got at least 4 hits.

When you have a prod co + network + writers who are producers + big star (Kiefer), etc, you're right it adds up to ungodly amounts. It can also include Line Producers (later in the series) and others (ie Wanda Chaffey is co-producer and appears to be an LP).

mike lazzo (HIS lowercase, not mine) was still trying to wiggle out of his initial comment when he posted this, "...Nonetheless this was a dumb answer to a good question as Lucille Ball and Gilda Rather to Amy Poelher and Amy Schumer prove my statement a load of generalized nonsense..."

Gilda Rather? Gilda RATHER?

He then went on, blaming his parents for his character flaws, "...I do sometimes yell and I'm not proud of it. (Inherited.)..."

How does an uninformed idiot like this get this kind of job? Was the Mailroom gig taken?

Ken, thank you for writing this. I'm always astounded by the sheer lack of female writers in any television program. Films are starting to get a higher concentration, but it's still unbelievably low. This is exactly why I want to hone my comedic writing and try and get into television and film. Granted, it may not work, but I want to challenge these small-minded executives in any way I can!

Keep being an inspiring writer, Ken! It was so amazing meeting you at the Village Players of Hatboro.

If a woman had made a similar comment about hiring male writers (even for a single show focused on women and not a generic block of time like Adult Swim, which should apparently be renamed "Men's Pool Time"), it would be the subject of several weeks of commentary on Fox News and conservative talk radio.

Wow, Peter, thanks for being an asshole and completely twisting my comment into something I didn't even say, imply, or infer, simply because you don't like comments I've made on this blog in the past, and you somehow seem to think you've got me all figured out by reading inbetween lines when there's nothing there.

Ya know what? I'm not even going to bother with this blog anymore. I only started following it years ago because I'm a fan of Ken's work, and have enjoyed all of the insight of the entertainment business from his own perspective on both a professional and personal level; the anecdotes he's shared over the years have opened my eyes to the dark side of the entertainment industry, and how much corporate influence has tainted film and television over the past several years.

I get it, okay? You guys don't like my opinions, I get it, but I'm tired of you guys being assholes and treating me like a village idiot because I share a difference of opinion. My opinion may differ from the rest of yours, and I may get sarcastic at times (that much, you're right about, Peter, but this time, you're entirely misinformed), but I've tried to remain civil and diplomatic on this blog, because it got to a point where Ken had no other choice but to enforce comment moderation because things were getting out of hand with trolls and such . . . and a majority of the time when I comment on this blog, the rest of you seem to almost immediately rip me a new one because you're of the opinion that my opinion(s) make me close-minded, uncultured, repressed, oppressed, and an idiot. For the record, I may be vocal (verbal?) about my opinion, but I'm not alone; if you bother to look at clips of older shows and movies on YouTube, you'll see comments from other people out there who feel the same way I do.

But again, I've had it, and this is the final straw. All I did was comment on Ken's post for today, and add to the topic at hand, and now I get ripped to shreds over something that somebody sees in my comment that wasn't there to begin with. I don't wish to put up with this kind of crap anymore, so I'm just going to do this whole blog a big favor and stop following, stop reading, and most of all, stop commenting, and I'm sure you all will be dancing in the streets because of it.

Oh, and for the record . . . could somebody please care to point out any specific time when I allegedly said I hate women? Because I sure can't ever remember posting anything of the sort, though Peter claims I always do. The only woman I can remember ever dismissing on this blog is Amy Schumer, because, yes, all she's ever done is build her career on being a hoe. What other women have I mentioned unfavorably on this blog? I must be suffering from a memory lapse or something, because I can't remember any others.

You guys are surprised that the creepy little weirdo who never had a date that didn't start with his Amex number doesn't understand women? Just look at him. And look at Adult Swim's demographic. I know virtually nothing about Lazzo, so I Googled him. Took about 38 seconds to an aha moment.

My theory for quite some time has been that the world is now being run by the kids who got beat up in high school. Not advocating bullying mind you, just saying.

Lazzo is the booger eater that sat in the back of class and drew Nazi bombers shooting at Godzilla on his Peachy folder.

The real question is how he got his job. But really, who cares about Adult Swim? Let's just all be happy for the women that don't have to work with him. They're the winners.

Hey, play nice guys. This is a fun blog. If people start ripping each other I'm going to start just blocking their comments. I don't need that shit. So let this serve as a fair warning. I don't want my readers fleeing because they're being attacked in the comments section. You're all welcome to have differing opinions but not to where you're attacking each other. I won't tolerate it any longer.

Back in the day I was a big fan of "Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law" and "Robot Chicken". Yes, they seemed to be targeting the inner preteen of aging boomer males, but they did it well. The rest of their schedule seemed to be targeting the same audience, but without the consistent quality.

"Venture Brothers" and "Moral Orel" were good occasional fun, but how many post-boomers are that aware of "Jonny Quest" and "Davey and Goliath" to get all the gags?

Not having checked it out in recent seasons, who are they targeting now?

Its been a long time since we had a flame war on here. My last one was a misunderstanding with VP81955 that I still regret everytime I see his posts. Joseph, don't go. You probably won't read this if you're already gone, but I've always enjoyed your comments. Peter, you must be American if you don't understand sarcasm - and thats a lovable characteristic of some Americans, not a criticism.

So grim. He shouldn't be allowed to get away with this. What a Grade A ignorant prick. I'm especially upset because I'm a fan of Adult Swim's output. If there isn't a change, I will have to reconsider that position.

And for all the assholes who attacked the last Ghostbusters movie for containing women, here's more evidence, if any were needed, that prejudice that does exist.

About KEN LEVINE

Named one of the BEST 25 BLOGS by TIME Magazine. Ken Levine is an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer. In a career that has spanned over 30 years Ken has worked on MASH, CHEERS, FRASIER, THE SIMPSONS, WINGS, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, BECKER, DHARMA & GREG, and has co-created three series. He and his partner wrote the feature VOLUNTEERS. Ken has also been the radio/TV play-by-play voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres. and Dodger Talk. He hosts the podcast HOLLYWOOD & LEVINE

Ken Being Social

Ken's Book Club

A collection of long-form Levine

MUST KILL TV: Ken's explosive and hilarious satire of the TV industry - now in paperback and Kindle